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Wilkerson: We Have A Lack Of Focus


Maxman

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http://www.jetnation.com/podcasts/2014/Muhammad_Wilkerson.mp3

 

Last Friday Joe Blewett (co-host of JetNation Radio) had an opportunity to interview Muhammad Wilkerson. We would like to thank the NY Jets PR Department for the opportunity. The transcript appears below and you can click play to listen to the audio.

 

Joe Blewett: Hey Mo, Joe Blewett from Jetnation.com. Numerous people expected the jets to have a 10-6, 9-7 type of season. What would you say is the main factor for the 1-7 so far?

Wilkerson: We have a lack of focus, lack of communication, self inflicted wounds like penatlies and turnovers. That's why our record is what it is. If we get those things corrected we will start getting wins.

 

Joe Blewett: Even though you seem like more of a laid-back, quiet type of guy, do you see yourself stepping up, being more of a leader in the locker room, especially with your team being one of the youngest in the NFL?

Wilkerson: I mean, I really don't talk much. But when I do, my teammates respect me and listen to me. But there are multiple older guys who are also leaders. So it's not just one person that people look towards to speak, to show some type of leadership. There are multiple people in this locker room. 

 

Joe Blewett: When you were at Linden High School, could you ever image yourself making it to the NFL? And what is it like to be the cornerstone piece to a franchise like the Jets? 

Wilkerson: In high school, I had a dream of playing in the NFL. Being here now is a dream come true, the position I'm in now... I'm honored and blessed to be here. Im going to keep working hard each and every day and try to better myself as a player and as a person off the field.

 

Joe Blewett: You are a part of one of the best defensive lines in football, along side of Damon Harrison and Sheldon Richardson. What is it like being a part of that and coming to work everyday with those guys?

Wilkerson: It's great; in the d-line room we are very tight and close. We compete against each other as well and then when we are out on the field we unleash everything on our opponent together. I'm glad I have those guys in the room with me and we are all young and I'm looking forward to playing great ball with them for years to come.

 

Joe Blewett: Could you talk about some of your favorite things about being an NFL superstar, as well as some of the negative things that come along with it?

Wilkerson: As far as being positive, it's great to be in my shoes. I can give back to the community. I'm always involved with the community. I love to give back and help people who need a little extra help. As far as negative things, people have their own views and  their opinions. In my shoes, I can't let that affect me.

 

Joe Blewett: It seems like after your seventh straight loss, your team is starting to lose a little bit of fire. With Rex announcing Vick will start against the Chiefs, has that provided any type of spark in the locker room or on the practice field? 

Wilkerson: You know, myself and my teammates can control what we can control. As far as Rex naming Vick the starter, we are behind whoever is the starter. Hopefully Vick can come in and give us a spark and we will go from there.

 

Joe Blewett: Quinton Coples came out to a slow start this season but had a good game against the Bills with five solo tackles and one and half sacks. Do you feel that the switch from DE to outside linebacker has slowed his growth at all, and what have you personally seen from him?

Wilkerson: Quinton is a big and athletic guy who is strong and fast. So we can line him up and do different things with him, and thats what so great for him being here with Rex and being in this defense. The switch is no problem for him and he is going to do what he has to do to help out this team win. Im pretty sure he is going to build off that game and keep making plays. 

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Mo's been kind of dogging it this year.

If you're Mo, and you know that your whole chain of bosses are puppets waiting to be fired, you know you're arguably the most coveted defensive lineman in the league, you know that all you need to do is play average football and not get hurt and you'll have Jerry Jones offering you $70 million guaranteed....do you really care what anyone in your house of cards front office really thinks?

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If you're Mo, and you know that your whole chain of bosses are puppets waiting to be fired, you know you're arguably the most coveted defensive lineman in the league, you know that all you need to do is play average football and not get hurt and you'll have Jerry Jones offering you $70 million guaranteed....do you really care what anyone in your house of cards front office really thinks?

 

No probably not.

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D line is incredibly overrated. Alex Smith had all day to throw underneath the 10 yard cushion consistently given by the DBs.

 

Hard to tell.  I think "incredibly overrated" is harsh.  They're pretty good.  The problem is, they literally have the worst coverage I've ever seen behind them.  It would be interesting to see how the DL would look with corners who arent beat the second the ball is snapped.  A half a second to a second is a lot of extra time for a QB.  If they could hold for a second, I think the D would look a lot different. 

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Hard to tell. I think "incredibly overrated" is harsh. They're pretty good. The problem is, they literally have the worst coverage I've ever seen behind them. It would be interesting to see how the DL would look with corners who arent beat the second the ball is snapped. A half a second to a second is a lot of extra time for a QB. If they could hold for a second, I think the D would look a lot different.

But they have the best nickel corner in the league, bro.

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But they have the best nickel corner in the league, bro.

 

Those words were never uttered, "consistently rated as one of the higher nickel corners in the league by everyone's favorite advanced metrics site" was, but spin away, you little whore.

 

Funny thing is, he's actually the only one who doesnt get beat immediately on the snap every single time.  He can occasionally stick to his guy.  Once the ball is in the air?  belch! 

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Indictment of the coach, GM and the character of every player in the locker room.

 

Players have bought into "not enough talent here" and frankly don't seem interested in competing for pride. Coach is a hot mess. GM is absolutely responsible for not bringing in enough talent.

 

Team is a disaster, oh look, another day, another article and discussion confirming it.

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The Jets are 1-8. There is no "agenda" with the media in this situation. It's impossible to write a positive article under these circumstances.

The agenda pops up when the Jets are mediocre or good, like 2009 or 2010 and there were still negative articles

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Indictment of the coach, GM and the character of every player in the locker room.

Players have bought into "not enough talent here" and frankly don't seem interested in competing for pride. Coach is a hot mess. GM is absolutely responsible for not bringing in enough talent.

Team is a disaster, oh look, another day, another article and discussion confirming it.

thats a great point, the players have bought into the " no talent" line...the coach is supposed to squash that but " sad clown " Rex and his subtle.." Hey it's Idzik not me" quotes are clearly having an effect on the players
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thats a great point, the players have bought into the " no talent" line...the coach is supposed to squash that but " sad clown " Rex and his subtle.." Hey it's Idzik not me" quotes are clearly having an effect on the players

 

Absolutely they are... a team cannot have the coaching staff and general manager politicking their self-preservation agendas 24/7 and not have it creep into the psyche of the locker room. Imagine the aspects of this that we aren't seeing through the media... what the climate must be like. Yeesh.

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thats a great point, the players have bought into the " no talent" line...the coach is supposed to squash that but " sad clown " Rex and his subtle.." Hey it's Idzik not me" quotes are clearly having an effect on the players

Where is this Ryan throwing Idzik under the bus coming from? Is he really making comments?

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Where is this Ryan throwing Idzik under the bus coming from? Is he really making comments?

no direct comments ...well not until next months anonymous Mehta article anyway ...but IMO every interview he gives has subtle..." Hey what do you expect the GM sucks" undertones
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Where is this Ryan throwing Idzik under the bus coming from? Is he really making comments?

 

Rex has had multiple microphone sessions now where he's gone out of his way to attribute things to Idzik, in effect detaching himself from the problems and all accountability. It's what Rex does, he's done it since he got here. The only people who really don't pick up on it are the same suckers who leave a used car lot thinking they just got a good deal. 

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It's called an agenda

Print the stuff that feeds the monster.

 

You know that this was a JetNation interview right? I was involved in setting it up and the prep and I can tell you we had absolutely no agenda here.  We used Wilk's words in the title. We took no creative liberties here at all.

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Horrible connection, that's one thing that cell phones have done, pretty much made telephone interviews obsolete. "John Idzik has to answer for why there's no contract forthcoming" interesting use of words there.

 

I think they have the players do these from the locker room. Or really close by.  But that is why we also provided the text transcript. :)

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You know what I'd like to see done to change JN up just a little bit Max is, the up or down arrows are a cool thing and since Facebook I find myself using it as much as I would a Facebook post. I'd like to see it changed over to a Like and dislike button that we can push and our names shown as to HOW you voted on a particular post.. 

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You know that this was a JetNation interview right? I was involved in setting it up and the prep and I can tell you we had absolutely no agenda here.  We used Wilk's words in the title. We took no creative liberties here at all.

This was more a generic reference to the media. Not so much an agenda going into the interview. You can have a 30 minute interview - but  they will parse out the words or headline the negatives that fit the current state of the Jets or in the case of other reporters take the quotes that fits their agenda. Classic example was the negative tweets highlighted by the media with Decker - totally ignored the positive ones - didn't fit their agenda.

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